It rained last night and all this morning as Beryl passed through. The sun came out some this afternoon, so hopefully the improving weather will hold through next week. Right now I'm just excited to see my family for the first time since Christmas, so for the time being I'm just hanging out with my grandparents and chilling.

I spent last night at my uncle's place and this morning we went out with a few other guys and fished around the Intracoastal and the marsh flats in a skiff. The bite was slow today, but by this afternoon I had the hot hand and landed four undersized flounder, two pigfish, a croaker and a couple of sea robins (which look like a toadfish and a flying fish combined). My uncle Kevin har the big fish of the day, landing a two and a half foot stingray.

Sea robin

Pigfish

First flounder of the trip

Small croaker

This evening I had pizza with everyone before heading back to Wilmington. Tropical storm Beryl has ensured that I won't be back on the water this week, so I may just head back to Dunn tomorrow since I'm riding down to Orlando on Friday with my grandparents for my brother's high school graduation. It will probably be Monday before I can get back on the water.

Day two of my tropical storm watch. It has strengthened today and the wind has stayed strong. However, I did venture out this afternoon to meet my uncle's and their families in Hampstead to go to the beach. We took the boat to Figure Eight Island and spent the afternoon on the southern end of the island. I'm really glad I wasn't on my kayak today as there were hundreds of power boats out for memorial day. This evening we had hamburgers, hotdogs, steaks and fish tacos before sitting around their house for awhile. It looks like there won't be much good weather this week so I'm taking advantage of tomorrow to do some fishing with these guys.

So the wind moved in today so I was once again hanging out at Brian's house. There isn't much hope for the weekend either as it looks like another premature tropical storm is brewing right off the coast.

I had to fight the current through Snow's Cut first thing this morning, but the rest of the morning I was able to make good time. I stopped at the Blue Water Grill in Wrightsville Beach for some fish tacos and Brian took a break from work to come down and see me. When I got back on the water I ended up fighting current for most of the afternoon and didnt make good time. By five thirty I was tiring out so I took out at a boat ramp near Hampstead, near some trailers that my uncles' own. Brian picked me up shortly after and we ended up getting some burgers for supper.

After Brian dropped me back off at the Holden Beach boat ramp this morning, I made pretty good time all morning, making it all the way to Southport. I stopped at the Southport Marina to eat some lunch and ended up hanging around for half the afternoon waiting for the tide to change out in the Cape Fear River.

The bridge to Oak Island near the mouth of the Cape Fear River

Southport, NC

Sometime after three I pushed off into the Cape Fear River where I had to fight current for a little while until the full affect of the turning tide took affect. I paddled until just before seven when I reached the mouth of Snow's Cut where Brian picked me up at the state boat ramp. Another day, another mile.

After crashing at Brian's last night we got up early and he dropped me off at the Barefoot Landing Marina in North Myrtle Beach. As I'm paddling back towards Wilmington Brian is picking me up for the next couple of days and so I only carried what I needed for today.

The Intracoastal in North Myrtle Beach

Taking a break on the North Carolina line for lunch

I crossed the state line a little before noon and made good time for the majority of the day. I made it to Holden Beach by six this evening and a little while later Brian picked me up and we headed back to his house.